1. Technical Field
The subject matter relates to monitoring and measuring the disruption of radio frequency signatures caused by external influences. It further relates to remote monitoring of the disruption via observation of effect of RF illumination on electronic devices based on monitoring unintended RF emissions.
2. Description of Related Art
The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Generally, powered electrical and electronic devices give off electromagnetic emissions throughout wide spectral regions, typically in the Radio Frequency (RF) regime. Electronic devices can be also impacted by outside sources of electromagnetic radiation that can couple in different ways. When the coupled electromagnetic energy exceeds thresholds that the electronic circuits are designed to operate under, operation of the device may be upset or the device may fail.
Various means may be used to disrupt the operation of electronic devices for a variety of reasons. Cell-phone blockers can be used to reduce the disruption caused by unexpected phone calls in crowded restaurants or theaters. RF jammers may be used to disrupt communication for anti-propaganda purposes. High power RF or high power microwave sources have been known to intentionally or unintentionally disrupt or damage electronic devices. However, all the above current means may be incapable of a sophisticated detailed range and variety of operational influence upon the effected electronic devices. These current means are typically incapable of creating a subtle, sophisticated range of effects in the influenced device, ranging from indiscernible to impaired, to temporarily disabled, to permanently disabled. Electronic devices are susceptible to interference, disruption or destruction when exposed to high-powered RF signals. This can be caused by unintentional exposure to RF sources, or by intentional illumination, typically for the purposes of obtaining more detailed device status or device intrinsic information or for doing harm. Identification and diagnosis of the interruption of normal functionality of an electronic device from a distance would provide a monitoring ability to assess the state of the device. RF environmental conditions, at a given location, and at a specific relative instant in time, the equipment of interest may work flawlessly without any anomalies whatsoever. Change any of these conditions with respect to the electromagnetic environment incident on the equipment and equipment upset or failure may not occur because both the electromagnetic environmental (EME) disturbances and the equipment's response to these disturbances are not well defined. If a measurement based approach is not made to understanding these responses the likely impact or none impact on equipment is merely statistical in nature.
The current methods do not provide a means to test all the possible combinations of frequencies, amplitudes, modulation waveforms, spatial distributions, and relative timing of the many simultaneous interfering signals that an operating system may encounter. The parameter space is just too large to possibly assess without feedback from the device that is subject to intelligently changing the illumination parameters.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved assessment of the effects of RF illumination on electrical or electronic devices and a further need for a method that provides a way to find frequency and modulation parameters causing maximum susceptibility of electrical or electronic devices and, an additional need to understand impact of an illumination source on electrical or electronic devices.